MWC wrap-up: my favorite devices
While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home from Mobile World Congress I thought it was a good idea to sum up some of my favorite MWC announcements. One thing that definitely stood out was Android. The little green robot was everywhere! Google provided all their partners with Android candy and a robot display. This was also the first time that Google had a booth at MWC and it was the talk of the town! It was one of the biggest booths on the show floor and was always crowded. I’m guessing the slide and the giveaways had something to do with that.
Google asked a bunch of developers and partners to showcase their Android app on their booth and I think that really worked. Adobe partner Condé Nast showed off Wired Magazine and The New Yorker on a Motorola Xoom on the Android booth. The electronic versions of Wired and The New Yorker are built with Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite.
MWC was full of tablets. The Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the LG OptimusPad all look very interesting. NVidia even showed the LG OptimusPad with Flash Player 10.2 on Honeycomb! My favorite was definitely the HTC Flyer. Well… That and the PlayBook.
I really like the HTC Sense UI and HTC seems to have done a fantastic job at building a tablet specific version of the Sense UI. Sadly they were only showing it behind glass so they probably still have a bit of work to do. The specs look great though and this is high on my wish list. I also like BlackBerry’s PlayBook. RIM made a balsy move by opting for a brand new OS instead of picking one that already exists. And you know what… It works… The PlayBook is incredibly fast and the UI brings a nice breath of fresh air to the soon to be crowded tablet market. It’s completely different from anything else on the market. I also like the touch enabled bezel on the PlayBook.
There were also plenty of new smartphones at MWC. The ones that really popped out were the Samsung Galaxy S2, the LG Optimus 2X and the HTC Incredible S. The Galaxy S2 is incredibly light. It’s so light that it felt like there was no battery inside. The LG Optimus 2X is also very light and it runs on NVidia’s Tegra 2 making it incredibly fast. My favorite was again an HTC device. The Incredible S looks more or less like what I have in my Desire HD except that it’s faster and has a front facing camera.
Oh… I should probably say that all of the devices mentioned in this post have Flash Player preinstalled and there were dozens of other devices that also come with Flash Player preinstalled. These are just my favorites. It’s been an amazing show and I already look forward to next year’s edition.
Digital magazines coming to Android built on AIR
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Wired, Martha Stewart, and New Yorker magazines on iPad, right? Those were created with a new suite of tools that we’ve been working on. The Digital Publishing Suite allows you to use your existing staff, skills, and Creative Suite publishing tools to design and deliver publisher-branded reading experiences to mobile devices.
Currently these magazines were only available on iOS devices but this week at MWC we announced that the Android viewer is now available. The application is actually built on AIR!
Condé Nast, publisher of WIRED magazine, showed off the magazine at MWC on the Motorola Xoom running Honeycomb. Check out the video below for more info (courtesy Seattle Times):
Lots of exciting announcements at CES! Here are my favorites!
Oh wow…Is it just me or does the tech world look very different this morning? I’m talking about the many exciting announcements coming out of CES. I was able to catch a few minutes of the Nvidia press conference last night so let’s start with that.
Jen-Hsun Huang (Nvidia’s CEO): When you put great engineers [from both Nvidia and Adobe] together this is what you’re able to achieve.
When I heard him say that it immediately stuck in my mind. Just because it is so true! Nvidia’s Tegra 2 really is a game changer and such an achievement would not be possible without strong partnerships. Check out this video segment from Nvidia’s press conference showing the performance of Flash on a Tegra 2 enabled device.
The LG Optimus 2X will be one of the first Tegra 2 enabled devices and it looks damn sexy!
The Motorola Xoom (also powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2) looks like another amazing device. The 10.1 inch display has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which makes watching video on it a lot less awkward than on the iPad’s 4:3 screen. Especially since most of today’s video is widescreen video. I never got why Apple went for the 4:3 screen… The Xoom looks great and yes… Motorola offers the full web…
Melissa Gardner (Motorola VP of consumer and product marketing): When you add Adobe in and the fact that they provide an internet experience that is exactly like the internet experience you have at home… That’s the magic.
The Motorola Xoom runs on Android Honeycomb. Honeycomb is optimized specifically for tablet devices.
There’s also lots of excitement about the BlackBerry PlayBook. Engadget got to play with one and here’s an example of the PlayBook’s very impressive multitasking.
Engadget: If you can’t tell, we’re very impressed. Overall the device is blazingly fast, comfortable to hold, and intuitive to use.
Oh… Just to make sure you got the message: All of the above run Flash! Did I not tell you that this was going to be an amazing year for Flash developers? Flash on!
I wish I was at CES. Get ready for a ton of new devices!
It’s probably every gadget freak’s dream to go CES in Las Vegas. Last year I “happened” to be in Vegas as a tourist during CES and so obviously I also visited the Consumer Electronics Show. While last year was mostly about 3D and Internet connected TVs this year we’ll see a whole range of new tablets being introduced. Some analysts are even saying that no less than 70 new tablets will see the daylight at CES.
We already saw teasers from Motorola and Vizio. Various techblogs are reporting on rumors about new tablets from Toshiba, LG, HTC, HP, Samsung, and more… You can already feel the buzz, can’t you?
Now wouldn’t it be cool if there was this one technology that could work on all those different tablets? Well… As it turns out, there is! No no… I’m not actually confirming anything here. I’m just saying that there is a technology out there that does run on multiple devices. You’ll have to wait and see which new devices will support the Flash Platform… That said… You do know that just about everyone is part of the Open Screen Project, right?
It’s going to be a great year for Flash developers! Flash on!
Motorola teasing a new tablet
2011 is going to be an interesting year! Apple has undoubtedly done an excellent job with the iPad but it has it’s obvious flaws. While they are currently the market leader in tablets the game is changing rapidly. With CES just a few weeks away big brands are starting to tease some of their announcements. (Man… I wish I could be at CES this year! So much cool stuff coming!) Motorola created this interesting teaser that doesn’t really say anything and yet says so much…
BTW… I’m doing a little bit of research on tablets and tablet applications. If you have a few minutes I would really appreciate it if you took the time to fill out this short survey.
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